OSAKA -- The Osaka Prefectural Government announced a 3.6 trillion yen budget plan for fiscal 2000 Tuesday that reduces personnel costs and raises high school tuition fees. Prefectural personnel costs will be reduced for the second consecutive year, while tuition fees for new students at local public high schools will be raised from 9,000 yen to 12,000 yen beginning in April. The planned cut in personnel costs was made possible because 1,265 jobs, including 1,000 teachers, will be eliminated in fiscal 2000. Moreover, pay raises for public workers will be nixed for the second straight year. The personnel reduction is part of a 10-year streamlining program that commenced in April to eliminate 7,000 workers by April 2009. The prefecture currently has 94,000 workers. An increase in tuition fees will net the prefectural government 1.36 billion yen in fiscal 2000 and 3.87 billion yen after fiscal 2002. The local government initially considered introducing a bill to impose a 1,000 yen monthly increase in tuition for all students every year over the next three years. Following opposition from the Osaka chapter of the Liberal Democratic Party -- the largest force in the prefectural assembly with 43 out of 112 seats -- the bill was amended to increase only tuitions for new students by 3,000 yen beginning in April. Realizing the unpopularity of the tuition hike, Osaka Gov. Fusae Ota said the local government will guarantee students' opportunities in education by increasing scholarships and exemptions. When Ota's predecessor, "Knock" Yokoyama, introduced a bill to increase high school entrance fees from 5,500 yen to 45,000 yen in December 1998, all parties in the assembly rejected the plan. Expected tax revenues for fiscal 2000 will be 1.21 trillion yen, up 12.3 percent from the initial forecast for fiscal 1999. The latest 1999 tax revenue figure is 1.16 trillion yen, according to prefectural government officials. The account for fiscal 1999 will be in the red to the tune of 10.9 billion yen. That debt cannot be resolved in fiscal 2000 due to the ailing economic climate, officials said. Ota rejected the idea of introducing a similar tax to that proposed by Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, saying, "I think it should be dealt with carefully because the amount of tax and its structure are different in Osaka." In addition to 280 billion yen in subsidies from the central government, the budget plan also relies on 262 billion yen in prefectural bonds, 116 billion yen of which will be used to cover a 530 billion yen revenue shortfall. The Osaka Prefectural Government has already issued bonds worth 3.8 trillion yen.
